


The Light I Found In You

by AceCavalier



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: (except the bad guys), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthday Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Happy Birthday Dimitri!, M/M, No One Dies Route, Overcoming Trauma, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Recovery, Sibling Bonding, Surprise Party, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21934273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceCavalier/pseuds/AceCavalier
Summary: The war is finally over, but Dimitri knows better than most that the road of recovery is a long one. On the day of his birthday, at least, it's a road he won't have to walk alone.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 100





	The Light I Found In You

**Author's Note:**

> So this is really late and not something I'm particularly happy with but - Happy Birthday Dima!

The gardens of Fhirdiad castle were wrapped in white. It smothered the grass beneath it, cloaked the hardy Faerghus evergreens, crunched beneath the boots of the gardens’ solitary visitor. This time of year, it was cold even by Kingdom standards, and as the day grew late most people had thought the better of wandering outside, preferring to huddle by the warmth of their fire places where winter’s frosted fingers couldn’t reach them; Dimitri wasn’t one of them.

In truth, he barely noticed the cold anymore. After so many years spent surviving on his own, half-starved and wild, with only a ragged cloak and his ravaged wits to guard him from the elements, a simple stroll through the afternoon chill was nothing to him - was, in fact, quite pleasant, after having spent the day attending meetings, reading and answering letters, tending to the day-to-day running of a kingdom still crawling back from the struggles of war. A difficult task, one that often overwhelmed Dimitri, and while he had decided to keep the significance of this particular day a secret, he couldn’t help but wish that he’d thought to plan at least _something_ enjoyable for the evening. But he wasn’t the only one with weight on his shoulders and a long list of duties around his neck, so, for this year at least, he had been happy to let the celebrations pass him by.

Dimitri was twenty-three today, but with how tired he felt and the way his bones ached as he walked, he might as well be fourty. Ten years ago, he had lost his father and dearest friend, and been thrown into a world of flame and shadow. Six years ago, he had been in Garreg Mach, a lost soul wandering hallways that nearly crushed him. Five years ago, the war had started, and Dimitri had very nearly given himself up to the darkness that had been growing inside him, sank so deep into the void of his hatred that he had all-but drowned – would have, undoubtedly, had it not been for the hands that reached in to drag him back out, kicking and screaming.

Now, a few months after the war’s end, Dimitri finally felt that he was least beginning to piece himself back together, to once again be the person – the king – he had always hoped to become, step by careful, hesitant step, crunching through the thick snow of all that hatred, sorrow, and guilt to reach a place where, for the first time in so long, he could be truly happy.

“Hey! Your Kingliness!”

The voice snapped Dimitri out of his introspection; he’d been so caught-up in his thoughts that the sound of beating wings had gone completely unnoticed by him. Unlike him, and likely a sign of just how exhausted he was. Loose flakes of snow began to whir and spin around his feet as he turned in time to see Claude’s magnificent white wyvern land, a plume of white rising up from its clawed feet to dance in the cool air. Barely steadied on the ground, Claude was already leaping from the saddle and stumbling through the snow towards him, a smile on his face so brilliant that even the sun itself would be envious.

The short distance between them was closed in a few brief seconds, their chests colliding as they each threw themselves into a long-overdue embrace. Dimitri’s arms wrapped tightly around Claude’s shoulders, holding him close against his torso, and he buried his nose into Claude’s hair, breathing in the scent of pine and spice that was so quintessentially _him_.

“I missed you,” he whispered, his voice muffled by brown locks and the looming threat of emotion.

They’d known this was how things would be. With their respective kingdom’s demands ever-nipping at their heels, they had understood that months could pass between visits – but understanding and experiencing were two very different things, and the brief two weeks since Dimitri had last seen Claude seemed like an eternity of torment. Having him close again now, Dimitri never wanted to let him go.

“I missed you, too,” sighed Claude, his shoulders sinking a little. He lifted his head to look up at his beloved, his hands reaching up between them to cup Dimitri’s jaw. “I’m sorry I couldn’t return sooner. Things in Almyra are taking longer than I thought they would, and I had to stop by Gloucester to deal with Lorenz. The way he goes on, you’d think merchant unions and tax evaders are a greater threat than Nemesis ever was! I swear to the gods, if he…”

His words tumbled into a surprised silence as Dimitri hugged him once again, unable to stop the icy tears that tickled at the corner of his eye. It wasn’t just Claude’s presence he had missed, or even his smell, but the warmth of him, the sound of his voice, the way his heart swelled with warmth whenever they were close, the way Claude’s sheer radiance could burn away every doubt and fear and sorrow in Dimitri’s soul and make him believe that, just maybe, he really did deserve happiness after all. There were no words that could ever adequately explain that feeling, so Dimitri simply held him, held him to his heart and let Claude’s light make him feel alive again, and Claude, knowing him better than anyone else ever had – better even than those who had known him since childhood – just held him in return.

They stood like that, motionless and silent, for a long while, until Claude began to shiver.

“You’re cold, Claude!” Dimitri stepped back, realising Claude was still dressed in attire better suited for Almyra’s stifling heart and hurriedly unclasping his cloak.

“F-Freezing, actually. I’ll be fine once we’re inside the castle.” Still, he didn’t resist when Dimitri gently eased the heavy cloak onto his shoulders and carefully reclasped it; the fine azure material and silver furs nearly dwarfed him, and Dimitri found the sight unbearably sweet. “You’ll have to make me one of these that fits one day, you know.”

A blush crept across Dimitri’s cheeks. “Uh, y-yes, I suppose I will…” He coughed. “Let’s get you inside.”

After having waved his wyvern off to get some rest, Claude tightened Dimitri’s cloak around himself with one hand and let the other find Dimitri’s own gloved fingers, intertwining them together as they walked back towards the castle, leaving two matching trails of footprints in the snow behind them.

Not a step through the door and back into the castle’s sombre passageways, Dimitri caught sight of Dedue making his way towards them, dressed in the traditional garb of Duscur that he had taken to wearing since his appointment as the small country’s ambassador.

“Dimitri!” He nodded his head in greeting before offering a shallow bow to Claude. “It’s good to see you’ve returned, Your Highness.”

Claude waved a hand at him. “No bowing or ‘highness-ing’ yet, Dedue – I’m still just a lord. Turns out the Almyrans aren’t quite convinced that sparing them from the wrath of a reborn god-slayer is enough to prove my worthiness as king, and having the right bloodline won’t cut it, either. Almyran and Fodlan politics are quite different.”

“I do not doubt it,” chuckled Dedue. “I’m certain you’ll make a great king, just as Dimitri has.” He turned back to Dimitri. “I’ve been searching for you. It seems a visitor has arrived to see the King of Faerghus.”

A visitor? Dimitri hadn’t been expecting anyone but Claude. “Who is it?”

“You’ll see.”

With a cryptic half-smile, Dedue turned and strode away down the corridor; Dimitri shot a confused look at Claude, who only shrugged in response, and the two followed after him. It was only a short walk to the grand hall where guests were usually greeted, during which Dimitri frantically tried to recall who had announced that they’d be visiting recently – a foreign emissary? An allied noble? A merchant representative of some kind? He was almost too busy going back over his long list of potential scenarios to notice the way Dedue knocked on the doors once before pausing, or the way Claude squeezed his hand and smiled at him. There was no time to question either of them – the doors were suddenly thrown open, startling Dimitri so severely that he yelped.

“ _SURPRISE!”_

The hall looked very different from when Dimitri had last seen it that morning. Its massive stone arches were adorned with blue tapestries trimmed with gold and decorated with the Blaiddyd crest, white and blue flowers had been arranged across a massive table almost overflowing with food of all kinds and colours, all centred around a cake roughly half as tall as Dimitri himself. More importantly was that the room, which had often felt so cold and empty as he passed through it in the day’s early hours, was filled with faces – and not just any old faces, either, Dimitri realised, as his thundering heartbeat began to steady.

Standing just within the doorway were Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid, two beaming smiles and one somewhat reluctant attempt. Carrying out last-minute cake repositioning were Ashe and Annette, and by the far wall Dimitri also noticed Gilbert and Rodrigues. Those faces, at least, he should have expected to remember it was his birthday, even despite his efforts to avoid reminding them, and wasn’t exactly shocked to see that they’d travelled to the castle to celebrate. Faces he didn’t expect to see, however, were Mercedes and her brother, Jeritza, along with his former professor, the three of whom must have travelled from the monastery, and there, standing beside Byleth…

White hair, lilac eyes, a hesitant smile.

“…Edelgard…?” It took Dimitri a moment to be certain he wasn’t hallucinating. “How… When did you…?”

The hesitation eased, her smile becoming softer, more like the Edelgard he had known so long ago, when they were just children.

“Hello to you, too, Dimitri. It is really such a shock to see me here?”

“Sorry,” he gave his own sheepish smile in return. “I thought you’d be too busy to make the journey here, especially for something so trivial.”

“I’d hardly call this trivial! In any case, I’ve left Hubert and Ferdinand in charge while I’m gone,” she frowned. “Cleaning up the last dregs of Those Who Slither _has_ kept me busy, but I’ve missed far too many of my little brother’s birthdays to miss this one. You’re just going to have to get used to having a big sister, I’m afraid.”

A shoulder bumped against his own, and he looked across to see Claude smiling up at him. The others had surrounded him now, all smiling faces and extended hands, all happy and safe and _here_ , and the emotion that had simmered so close to the surface finally broke free, pouring from his good idea and welling up in his throat, flooding with him with a feeling he hadn’t known in ten long and terrible years.

 _Happiness_. Pure and unrelenting, the kind that stemmed not from any achievement or any gift, but from the kind of the love that he had spent so long yearning for. The kind of love that only grew as the others shared his happy tears and swept him into a monstrous hug, a mess of arms and laughter as they all tried to fit themselves into the embrace.

 _The love of his family_. Of all the gifts Dimitri could have received for this birthday, this was the one he would cherish most of all.


End file.
